The embodiments herein generally relate to systems and methods of optical computing and, more specifically, to optical computing devices comprising rotatable broadband angle-selective filters.
Optical computing devices, also commonly referred to as opticoanalytical devices, may provide improved sensitivity and detection limits when integrated computational elements are used. Such integrated computational elements may provide a relatively low cost, rugged, and accurate system for monitoring petroleum quality for the purpose of optimizing decision making at a well site and efficient management of hydrocarbon production. In some applications, the integrated computational elements may be useful in improving detection limits when determining a particular characteristic of a sample, such as a substance, compound, or material present in a wellbore, or other technology fields including, but not limited to, the food and drug industry, industrial applications, mining industries, or any field where it may be advantageous to determine in real-time a characteristic of a substance, compound, or material.
Space limitations may impact the design of optical computing devices. For example, it may be desirable to reduce the footprint of an optoanalytical devices to allow it to be included in process equipment or downhole oil and gas exploration equipment where space is limited. In other cases, it may be desirable to measure more than one analyte or characteristic in a sample with optical computing devices, where there is insufficient space to place multiple optoanalytical devices. In either of these two cases, advantages can be obtained from optical computing devices by reducing their footprint and combining multiple instruments into one housing.
Space saving techniques exist for traditional optical devices such as combining optical transducers into one housing to allow, for example, a camera to work in two distinct wavelength regions (e.g. Si detector for the UV-Vis and InGaAs detector for the NIR). For optical computing devices, space-saving techniques can also include combining multiple light sources into one housing, while sharing other optical components in the optical train (such as ICE core and detector) in a single optical computing system. However, traditional means of combining two or more optical components often require design considerations and/or beam steering optical components that can decrease the available light flux into an optical train (i.e. beam splitters).